EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Sock it to me

SHALLOTTE, NC (WWAY) — Our feet are sometimes a little overlooked, and the homeless are many times overlooked. But a woman in Brunswick County is helping make sure both get some TLC.

Down a long stretch of road, down a long stretch of hallway, we find comfort.

“It’s the No, 1 requested item by a homeless person,” our Extraordinary Person Next Door Theresa Tese said. “It’s not part of our normal mission, but people have given new underwear and things. So I’m going to throw some in as a surprise. They won’t even know that it is coming.”

This batch of clean socks and surprise clean underwear is headed to a motorcycle club in Washington.

“They are doing a homeless project and putting backpacks together for the veteran street homeless,” Tese said.

Tese created Comfort Socks after months of thinking of a way to give back and make a difference.

“It was a cold night in New York,” Tese said. “October. There was snow on the ground. I was comfortable in my living room and had new socks on and new slippers, and I just began to think about how good that felt. My mind went into things like if you’re walking with socks on and they get a little wet how uncomfortable that feels.”

It is where an idea was born. An idea to provide the homeless with new socks.

“They get a little bit of easement of their situation,” she said. “Maybe their heart and soul will open up to a kind word, or maybe they’ll feel there’s a little hope, right? That’s what we’re about. That’s why we call it Comfort Socks. We want to comfort their soul.”

Tese runs the small operation with a huge heart out of a storage unit in Brunswick County, where she works in the dark with a goal of bringing light.

“I’ll write on here 120 pairs,” she said as she filled out a care card that is included in every shipment of socks.

Her non-profit gives something soft to the homeless population all across the United States.

“Nobody really wants to deal with them, but we do,” Tese said. “A simple covering of their feet gives them a break from their situation.”

Tese says the best way you can help is to hold sock drives to get everyone involved. It’s like a canned food drive except with clean socks. They also are a charity and accept tax deductible monetary donations.

Check out more ideas on the Comfort Socks Facebook page or the Comfort Socks website